180 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



The Laughing came, too, from his home, Scoulton 



Mere ; 

 And that Arctic marauder who hunts without fear: 



tured feathers appear on the back. See Part II. for a poetical 

 description of the gull's and other birds' pursuit of the herring. 



The Ridibundus, Laughing-Gull, Black-headed Gull, Brown- 

 headed Gull, Puit, Pewit-Gull, Black-Cap, Sea-Crow, Mire-Crow, 

 or Crocker, is whitish ; head and throat black ; length fifteen 

 inches; makes a laughing noise ; inhabits Europe and America, 

 and found also in this country. It breeds at Scoulton Mere, in 

 Norfolk, where the eggs have been collected in great numbers. 

 The young birds leave the nest as soon as they are hatched 

 and take to the water, as do indeed most of the young of the 

 aquatic tribes. It is a very useful bird, following the plough 

 for worms as regularly as the rook. Its plumage varies: in 

 winter the head and other parts of the body, which are black in 

 summer, become white. 



The Argentatus, or Less Black-backed Gull, is greatly 

 inferior in size to the Great Black-backed Gull, but rather 

 larger than the Herring-Gull. Found frequently, and breeds, 

 in this country. The eggs and young similar to those of the 

 herring-gull. 



The Parasiticus, Arctic-Gull, Teaser, or Dung-Hunter, has 

 the body above black ; beneath, temples, and front, white. In- 

 habits Europe, Asia, and America ; common also in the He- 

 brides and the Orkneys, where they breed among the heath ; it 

 has been seen also in Yorkshire. Eggs two, ash-coloured 

 spotted with black, size of a hen's. It is twenty-one inches 

 long. Pursues smaller gulls till they have discharged what 

 they have lately eaten, which it dexterously catches and de- 

 vours before it reaches the water. 



The Rissa,or Kittiwake, is, the first and second year, called 

 Tarrock, not arriving at maturity till the third year, when it 

 isalout fourteen or fifteen inches long; weighs about half a 



